A/N: This chapter skips ahead a little, only a week. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It feels almost rushed in a way but at the same time I wanted to move the story along too. And I'm never sure of my writing of Paris. I feel I can never do her awesomeness justice.

"The whole town smells like eggs," Jess groaned to Luke as he attempted to hold his nose.

Luke rolled his eyes. "It's not that bad."

"I see flowers wilting," he pointed out the glass window of the diner.

"Maybe it is that bad," Luke agreed. "But what can we do? There's rotting eggs somewhere out there."

"Its all my fault," Kirk muttered. "I hid the eggs."

"He's got a point," Jess said.

"Do you remember where you hid them, Kirk?" Luke asked as he now stood in front of him.

Kirk shook his head. "I had a map. A well drawn out map. But I veered off course. Taylor's going to be so disappointed in me."

"Taylor?" Luke asked. "You're gonna need to worry about you if this smell doesn't go away."

"Oh, no," he sighed, now looking very sick. "Mother will be disappointed, too."

Jess rolled his eyes. "We need to do something about this, Uncle Luke."

"Like what?" He shrugged his shoulders.

"What if we find them?" He whispered.

"Find what?"

"Find the eggs."

"Find the eggs."

"Yes."

"How?" Luke questioned. "And why?"

"Because have you smelt that?" Jess retorted. "We need to do something about it."

Luke sighed. "Maybe we can try to search Kirk's hiding spots."

Jess raised his eyebrow. "You know his hiding spot?"

"I've lived in this town a long time," he answered. "You learn a lot of things you don't want to know."

He nodded. "Ah. That makes sense."

"It's my fault," Kirk muttered and both Danes men turned to look over at him.

"Sooner rather than later, too," Luke added.

...

Rory threw clothes into her bag from her closet. It had now been a week since Spring Break and she'd avoided Friday Night Dinner one week and wasn't sure she could do it again.

Conversations with her mother had been short. Mostly, Lorelai liked to inform her of the news of the town and lately that involved Luke's mysterious nephew. She didn't care for hearing about the nephew. Whenever Lorelai had began to mention him, Rory cut her off and changed the subject or claimed she had work to.

Now, however, she was going home. Rory was sure to be bombarded with face to face questions and observations about Spring Break. She didn't want to talk much about it, especially not the part that involved her romantic life.

Paris walked into the room. "You heading home soon?"

"Yep," Rory nodded. "Just have a few things left to pack and then I'm off."

"Why do you not look excited?" Paris crossed her arms over her chest.

The brunette sighed and faced her friend. "Because I'm not really sure I want to go deal with my mom trying to set me up with Luke's mysterious nephew."

Her eyebrows raised. "Lorelai is trying to set you up with someone?"

"Not exactly," she said. "It's more implied. She always brings him up and I know its news back home but...I just really don't want to hear about this new guy."

"Because of Jess?" She asked.

Rory bit her lip then nodded. "He invades my thoughts sometimes."

"Uh-huh," Paris nodded, interested.

"The other day I was in class and all of a sudden I couldn't remember what class it was because I was thinking about how it felt when we were dancing."

"Are there...other times too?" She wondered. "Like night thoughts?"

Rory glared. "Are you asking if I've had sex dreams about him?"

"Its healthy to talk about this stuff," she argued. "You won't get over him unless you talk about it."

"I don't want to talk about it," she replied. "I just want to move on and be done with it."

"Are you?" Paris found herself asking.

"I don't know," she sighed. "It hasn't been very long."

Paris nodded but didn't move from her spot. "Maybe going home will do some good. Reevaluate."

"Movie binge with my mom on junk food," Rory smiled.

Her friend smiled back. "That, too."

She finished the last of her packing and closed the bag. "Have a good time with...Professor Fleming."

"I told you that you can call him Asher," she replied.

"No," Rory shook her head. "He's still my professor. I'd prefer to call him that."

"Suit yourself," Paris crossed her legs.

Rory smiled at her, glad to have a change of topic before she left. She grabbed her bag and her keys. "See you, Paris."

"See you."

...

Rory casually drove down to Stars Hollow. The roads weren't full of cars and she got there pretty quickly. First, she headed to her mother's house and noted that the Jeep was in the driveway but her mother apparently was not home. She put her bag in the house and headed for the place it was most likely Lorelai would be.

She walked to Luke's, happy for the first time in days it seemed. Rory was glad to see her mom. Last week she had been on Spring Break still that she hadn't been able to fly back immediately for Friday Night Dinner.

Emily was surprisingly understanding about it. She said a young girl such as her granddaughter should have fun every once in a while - as long as it was appropriate fun. Rory his her expression as she thought of just what happened in Florida.

The diner was almost within touching distance and she breathed a sigh of relief. Whenever she came to town, she felt like she found what she had been missing. But when she came to Luke's, she felt like she was home.

The bell above the door chimed and she walked into the doorway. What she met with knocked her breath out of her throat. Rory froze, seeing the familiar dark hair. She glanced down at him, her eyes scanned his body as much as she could before he turned around.

It couldn't be, she thought. No, how was it possible? Part of her mind told her she was imagining the similarities. Another part of her mind screamed what the hell is he doing here.

The dark haired man turned around and she felt her heart stop. It was Jess. He stared at her in shock and probably mirrored the expression on her own face. Neither moved, too stunned to say or do anything.

It seemed neither of them needed to. The door chimed behind Rory and she heard a squeal of happiness. Lorelai hugged her daughter tightly as she said, "You're here! You made it!"

Rory broke out of her stare and hugged her mother back. She laughed at Lorelai's excitement and tried to sound as normal as she could. "I couldn't let you go through another week at dinner without me, right?"

"The gods have descended down to bless you, my child," Lorelai smiled as she pulled out of the hug.

Jess watched with intense curiosity. He had expected to never see Rory again. Yet here was, standing in front of him, at his uncle's diner in some unknown town. And she had hugged his uncle's close friend and best customer.

Lorelai walked them both further into the diner and she stopped when she saw Jess. "Hey, Jess. I have someone I want you to meet."

Rory's eyes pleaded with him not to say anything. She wondered why he looked as surprised as she did. This was her town. He was a New Yorker. What was he doing here?

Jess shook his head once to shake out of his trance. Lorelai didn't seem to notice the awkwardness between the two nineteen year olds and continued. "Jess, this is my daughter, Rory. Rory, this is Luke's infamous nephew, Jess."

The nephew!

Her daughter!

Their minds screamed almost in unison. Rory felt her face pale as she considered everything her mother had told her about likes nephew. Now that she thought about it, Lorelai had said things to her that could describe Jess.

He responded first as he stepped slightly forward. "Hi."

She nodded. "Hi. Nice to finally meet the nephew."

"Nice to finally meet the daughter," he said.

Lorelai between the two of them then kept her gaze on Jess as she asked for coffee and a donut. Rory sits with her, her own coffee untouched as she watched Jess work. He took orders and brought out food as if he'd been doing it for years.

How had she not let her mother talk about him? If only she didn't change subjects or claim some kind of homework, she thought. If she had just heard his name. Rory wouldn't be in this mess right now. She wouldn't have stood there frozen as the guy she'd slept with over spring break then left the next day wiped the counter at Luke's diner.

When she finally managed to finish her coffee, Rory turned to her mother and said she had some work to do before they got ready for dinner. Lorelai accepted this and kissed her daughter's cheek goodbye.

Jess watched as Rory left the diner and not too long after, told Cesar he was taking a break. He was thankful Luke wasn't around right now due to drama with Nicole.

Once outside, Jess thought of the problem. He didn't know where Rory would go. He didn't know where she would go when upset or when she was happy. This town was a mystery and even more than that, Rory in this town was a mystery.

Instead, he headed to the bridge to brainstorm. Maybe he would go through all of his conversations with her and try to narrow it by her interests.

Jess froze for the second time in an hour when he saw someone sat the bridge already. Her brown hair was swept off to one side and she stared down into the water. Her shoes were on the bridge beside her and her jeans were rolled up toe ankle as she dipped her feet in.

With a deep breath, he stuffed his hands into his pockets and walked forward. She made no reaction to show whether she heard him or not. "We should talk."

Rory's head lifted at his words and stared at his face. "Yeah, we should."

He didn't sit down. Instead he stood there and looked at her and wondered what twist of fate sent him to a town where she lived. Was it luck? Or was it some sick joke?

"I have some questions," Rory said with her face back towards the water but now stared ahead instead of down.

He nodded. "I'd be surprised if you didn't."

She turned back to him. "Luke's your uncle?"

"Yeah," another nod. "His sister is my mom. He practically raised me."

"Me, too," she said and a smile flitted on her face as she thought of Luke. It faded just as soon as it had appeared however when she spoke again. "And you didn't think to tell me you had family in Connecticut when I said I lived here?"

"Honestly?" He asked. "No. Because I didn't think - what are the chances that he lived in the same place as you?"

"I don't live here anymore," she said.

His eyebrow raised. "Oh?"

"How did you not know I was the daughter?" She wondered. "I mean, my mom, she would say Rory. You must have connected it. Unless...you forgot my name. That's got to be it because there's probably so many girls you lost track so you forgot my name -"

"Rory," he said and she turned to him again. "I didn't forget your name."

She shook her head in disbelief. "Then how?"

"I haven't exactly seen your mother that much," he answered. "And when I did, she's either asking for coffee or talking about some French guy. Occasionally she brought up having a daughter about my age but it seemed like some kind of set-up so I'd shrug my way out of the conversation."

"Some set-up when you've already slept with the other person," she scoffed.

"I didn't know," he said. "Rory, let me explain everything."

"Hmm," she made a sound. "Explain. Yes, explain why you left."

Jess stared at her face as she stared up at him. "I didn't choose to leave."

Another scoff. "Great starter. You know what? I don't want to know what it is, Jess."

Rory stood up and moved to walk past him but he reached for her arm. She stopped walking. "Luke called me from jail. He needed help. I couldn't do nothing."

"You called my mom to bail him out," she finished for him and he nodded. "I don't see why you had to leave - without a goodbye I might add - when someone else was taking care of it."

"You don't understand," Jess shook his head.

"Then explain it," she said then lowered her voice. "Explain to me why I was in this afterglow after you and me - then I find out you left. And your friend keeps telling me about some note."

"He found the note?" He asked.

She laughed. "Jess, I know there's no note."

"There was a note," he said. "I left it for Caleb with a note of his own to give it to you."

"Okay say there is a note," she followed. "That still doesn't explain why you had to leave if Luke was taken care of."

"Luke is my closest relative," he began. "He's the reason I'm not some complete screw up."

Her anger eased for a moment. "But what about your parents? You're not close to them?"

"My mom, she has her own problems," he said hesitantly. "Sometimes its pot, sometimes its a new boyfriend. Sometimes that boyfriend turns into a husband."

"Oh," she whispered. "But what about your dad?"

Jess stuffed his hands back into his pockets. He wasn't even sure when he had taken them out in the first place or when he let go of Rory's arm. "Never met him."

"I'm sorry," she shuffled her feet. "My dad - I've met him but he's barely around. He has a new family now. A new wife and a new daughter. Its not the same but I get it a little."

He smiled at her despite himself and continued on with his explanation. "Luke helped out. He tried to get my mom help when she needed it. He made sure I was doing okay, that I was eating right. I owe Luke everything so when he called, it wasn't a question whether or not I'd come."

Her eyes lit in understanding. Rory knew better than anyone how Luke was. She couldn't fault him for that much. "But why write a note? You knew where I was. You knew my room number. Why not come tell me to my face if it was more than - more than that?"

"I couldn't," Jess shook his head.

"Why?" She half-cried. "Why couldn't you tell me to my face you were leaving?"

"Because!"

"Because what?" She asked. "I know we didn't know each that long but didn't I have the right to hear it from you?"

"You did," he said. "And I'm sorry. I messed up."

"Yeah, you did!" Rory replied. "God, Jess. Just tell me why."

He was silent, the words he wanted to say stuck on his tongue. The explanation in his mind consisted of things it was too soon to say. That he felt like there was this connection and that something between them just felt right.

"Jess," she pleaded.

He said the words in his head. How if he went to her room and he saw her face or looked into her blue eyes, he'd never have left. But Luke needed help. He needed help with the diner and to be able to deal with everything.

But one look at Rory and he'd have stayed in Florida and let down the one person who he couldn't let down. Now, as he stood on the old bridge and looked at Rory in front of him, he realized his mistake. He ended up letting her down too.

"Fine," she huffed as she grabbed her shoes. "Don't tell me. I have to go."

"Rory, wait -"

"I have a family dinner tonight," she said as she walked away.

With that, she disappeared from his sight and left him standing there alone. Jess watched the path she took full of regret. This was what he wanted. He wanted a chance to see her again, to explain. Why couldn't he do it though?

For the first time since he arrived, he sat down. Jess reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette. "Fuck."

...

Lorelai wasn't home yet when Rory got there. She grabbed her bag and headed to her room and took out a pen and paper. Quickly she started making a list of what Jess had told her versus the events of spring break. She sighed and put the pen down.

It wasn't long until Lorelai came home. She called out for Rory and told her that she was going to get ready for dinner.

As she headed up the stairs, she turned to her daughter cautiously. "Are you okay, hun?"

"Yeah," she smiled. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know," Lorelai said. "Ever since we were in the diner, something seemed off."

"It was just the drive," she waved it off. "I'll be better at Grandma's, I promise."

"Okay," she smiled back at her daughter. "Love you, kid."

"Love you, too, mom," she smiled as her mother disappeared up the stairs.

Rory rushed back to her room and his the notebook where she had made her list. It wasn't exactly a pro/con list but still not a list she wanted Lorelai to find. She pulled out a blue loose dress and a sweater and got ready for dinner when she was done.

A/N: What do you think? I hope you like it more than I do, buy I do like the Rory/Jess confrontation :)

I'm also going to be changing the rating on the story now that it is no longer a one-shot in case a heads up was necessary :)